


Alexandria Archives

by Konamicodex, MercuryAlice



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Daaryl, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 17:23:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3577710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Konamicodex/pseuds/Konamicodex, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercuryAlice/pseuds/MercuryAlice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years later, video tapes are recovered from the Alexandria Safe Zone that shed more light on the lives of the people that survived there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alexandria Archives

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MercuryAlice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercuryAlice/gifts).



_[AARON IS SITTING IN THE CHAIR, IDLY FIDGETING HIS FINGERS TOGETHER AS DEANA SPEAKS JUST OFF CAMERA.]_

**Tell me about the first time that you fell in love.**

By Georgia standards, we had what anyone would call an All American Romance. It was young, reckless, and we hid it from absolutely everyone that was still breathing.

I mean, you wouldn't think you'd explore those formative years of sexuality with the kid that didn't say anything unless he was screaming it with all the vitriol in the world, but one applesauce cup, half a sandwich, and three weeks later and we were teaching each other the finer points of oral sex. well, maybe not three weeks.

Could have been longer than that. We weren't exactly counting.

And I know what you're going to say, because literally /everyone/ has said it. Wasn't that a bit stupid?

Yeah, that's kind of the point.

We were teenagers, and it was our right to be idiots. But it didn't matter to us, not at the time. We were best friends turned sex fiends and we were /in love/. It was beautiful, and dangerous for both of us, had anyone found out. Maybe that added to the allure. Lucky for me, he knew all the best places to hide out, get drunk, and fuck until way past curfew.

There were no allies in our lives, certainly not in either of our parents. We had a hunch that his brother knew, though we couldn't really figure out how he would have found out. He was older than both of us by a great deal, and despite the slurs that he was spitting between every other word, he never threw the gay ones at his brother. Wouldn't have been accurate anyway, as I'm pretty sure he was bisexual. I never got the chance to ask.

**So why an applesauce cup and half a sandwich?**

Well, he was the poor kid at our school. Everyone mostly ignored him, which is probably why he was always yelling when he had something to say. Always came to school in clothes that probably weren't his originally, torn up and dirty. I asked the teacher once why no one ever went to talk to his parents or report it to.. someone. I got told to mind my own business.

It was one of those ungodly days, you know? Where the air conditioning in the school didn't do a thing to get rid of that Georgia heat, so we all filed outside to eat during lunch because sitting in the sun was, ironically, cooler than sitting inside the building.

Every ounce of shade was occupied by this group or that, friends who were content to circle around and gossip loudly about whatever came into their small brains. He and I, we weren't so different when it came to socializing, though all those groups looked at us like outsiders for different reasons. He wasn't hard to find, sitting in the sun with his sleeves rolled up, picking at the holes in his jeans as some way to deal with the fact that he couldn't get away with smoking cigarettes on the school grounds and had nothing else to do at the moment.

And, I don't know, I just offered him part of my lunch. Half the sandwich, and the apple sauce. I hate apple sauce. Worked out well, that way. He loved it.

You would have thought he'd never had it before, the way he practically drank it out of the cup.

**And after that?**

It became a thing we did. It wasn't every day, mostly because he wasn't always there for lunch, or for school in general, but when he was, I'd find him wherever he was sitting and we'd split what I had. You know, come to think of it, I don't think he ever brought his own food. I wonder if he ate much at home. He was awful skinny.

**You never found out?**

Never went to his house. When we'd sneak off, it was always to an abandoned shack or, a tent in the woods, sometimes a building that was under construction.

Never asked either, it was sort of an unspoken rule. We didn't talk about where we came from.

It was nice that we just kind of slid into that. We never asked each other about bruises, or weird habits, but we also kind of always just /knew/ what things to avoid. We became so synced together when it came to the home stuff, that being around him was always this safe zone.

We didn't have to worry when it was just us.

It was those similar lifestyles, the similar things we had waiting for us back home, that made it so that we kinda just knew. I'd look at him and I could tell that he knew what my mom was like. We all knew that his mom had been killed in a fire a few years ago, I think that's why most of the teachers just kind of ignored his behavior. His dad was probably pretty close to my mother, except, I think he was more of the expresses-himself-physically sort.

It wasn't until we were more than just friends that he finally let me see what was going on back at his house. Not at his house, but what was done to him.

It wasn't hard to put two and two together when he showed up at one of our meeting places, bleeding.

**This session is about you, Aaron. Let's talk about how that impacted on you.**

I wanted to help, but knew that we couldn't tell anyone. I told you how our teachers ignored him. So we had it in our heads that going to any adults for some sort of intervention would probably just make it worse.

I, umm, did a lot of reading that week at the library on first aid and medical stuff. I took what I could from our first aid kit at home, he lifted a bunch of stuff from the pharmacy. We had a box at his place by the lake, just full of stuff.

I got really good at it, too. It's probably what set me on my career path, now that I think about it. Wanting to help people.

**Do you think there was a savior dynamic in how you saw that?**

I never saw myself as his savior, because I never saw myself as better than him. We were the same. Damaged, outsiders, lonely. It's going to sound horribly cliche, so I'm sorry, but we kind of saved each other. Man, that sounds even more ridiculous when you say it out loud.

**But it then made you want to help people.**

You wanted to know about the first time I fell in love, well that was him. It wasn't about saving him, or him saving me. We were just kids, teenagers. Was being with him what made me who I am now?

Yeah, probably. I don't know.

Would make a good story though, wouldn't it?

**What happened after that?**

After what?

**After the place on the lake.**

I don't know. It became routine. Shared lunches, first aid lessons, painkillers, sex, homework, regretfully never getting to stay the night.

**And then?**

Do we have to keep talking about my pre-college days?

**What do you want to talk about, Aaron?**

I have things I need to be doing. Eric and I are going to be heading south tomorrow to look for more recruits and I need to make sure the RV is stocked and ready.

**You and he didn't keep in touch. Why's that?**

Look, I don't...

My mother was in one of her moods, okay? She decided, one Friday night, that moving north was what was best for us. By Monday we were packed and I was sitting in a truck with her raving in my ear about Georgia demons.

I didn't have his address so I couldn't send a letter to explain.

I have things I need to do, ok? We can delve into what makes me the saddest in a week or so when Eric and I get back.

**No one's keeping you here, Aaron. You're free to leave if you want to.**

_[AARON STANDS AND MOVES TO LEAVE]_   
Great. See you in a couple weeks with a few new residents if we're lucky.

_[FROM OFF CAMERA]_ And for the record, I hate that you videotape all of these. Anyone could watch them.

**It's for archive purposes. Send Eric my love.**

Not everything needs to be public record.

**We can talk about that next time.**   
_[IMAGE IS OBSCURED AS A FIGURE PASSES IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA BRIEFLY]_


End file.
